Courtesy of Justin Jarrett/USCBAthletics.com Head Coach Bryan Lewallyn speaks to his USCB baseball team after practice Thursday at the Richard Gray Baseball Complex in Hardeeville. The Sand Sharks open the season Jan. 27 at Brewton-Parker and return home to face the Barons again at 1 p.m. on Jan. 28.

Bryan Lewallyn may be the accidental baseball coach of the University of South Carolina Beaufort Sand Sharks, but like any backup in sports he’s ready to go, according to Athletic Director Ty Rietkovich.

Lewallyn was named the Sand Sharks head coach in November after the departure of Rick Sofield, who created the USCB baseball program and led it through its first three seasons.

Sofield resigned to accept a Major League Baseball position with the Pittsburgh organization offered by his friend and former teammate, Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle.

“This came unexpectedly,” Lewallyn said Wednesday at a Sand Sharks “meet-and-greet” event that will be broadcast on “Between the Lines,” a Sun City TV program.

“I certainly didn’t expect to coach for one year and then get the head coaching position,” Lewallyn said.

Rietkovich used the analogy of a backup quarterback who knows the playbook and goes to practice, waiting for an opportunity to help the team.

“Coach Sofield got the call to go to the pros and he took the call,” Rietkovich said. “Bryan is somebody who has been there on the sidelines every day. It’s now his time to step up.”

The athletic director noted that, given Sofield’s propensity for arguing with umpires, Lewallyn had to be ready to take over at a moment’s notice last season.

“Bryan was one controversial call from being the head baseball coach on any given day,” Rietkovich said.

Lewallyn has retained two assistants from Sofield’s staff: Kyle Jones, who coaches outfielders and hitting, and Nolan Fuller, who coaches infielders. Both are former USCB players.

“Sometimes when you start looking for new coaches you either have to bring in someone from outside or you go with someone who knows the program,” Lewallyn said.

“The success of this program has been and always will be the players,” he said. “We believe the way we work in practice is the right way to do things, so on game day we make out a lineup and turn them loose.”

In addition to the former USCB players who are coaching, Lewallyn has 17 seniors on his roster to help guide the program.

“We’ve got a few guys who have been around from day one,” when the Sand Sharks baseball team first took the field in 2009, he said.

USCB has 12 full baseball scholarships that are divvied up among about 30 players, the coach said. All will be in uniform for home games and about 24 will dress out for road trips, he said.

Except for catching, where Lewallyn had to recruit some new talent, USCB has an abundance of position players ready — especially in the outfield, he said.

“We’ve got a good problem of not ‘who’s going to play that position’ but ‘which one of these guys who can play there will be in the lineup,’” Lewallyn said.

The head coach introduced his players individually Wednesday and said the seniors “will help bring the young players along” before the “mass exodous” of graduation.

The Sand Sharks started workouts Tuesday, probably the coldest day of the winter so far, but the weather improved later in the week as Lewallyn began looking at potential lineups.